(Washington DC) – Today in the nation’s capital, five environmentalists participated in a peaceful act of civil disobedience against one of the corporations that stands to profit from the Keystone XL Pipeline. Jeannie Amado, Kelly Canaan, Ricky Lehner, Lacy MacAuley, and Bill Ragen were arrested by DC metro police after a 30 minute sit down peaceful protest in the lobby of 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, which is the DC corporate office of Valero Energy Corp. Valero owns oil refineries that are poised to receive at least 20% of the tar sands exported from Canada through the nation’s heartland to Texas.

“We are putting our bodies on the line for the future of our children,” said activist Lacy MacAuley as she was led from the scene in handcuffs. “We won’t stand for corporations like Valero to profit from the destruction of the environment.”

The action at Valero Energy Corp was the culmination of a “Tour of Shame” of institutions in the nation’s capital that invest in the tar sands industry and are bankrolling the destruction of the Canadian wilderness and the dangerous, dirty Keystone Pipeline. The tour began at the Canadian Embassy, then moved to a branch office of TD Bank in the Penn Quarter and ended at Valero. Approximately 50 environmentalists joined the tour to spotlight how “TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is a toxic investment.”

Today’s action against Valero, TD Bank, and the Canadian Embassy was organized as a part of a week of action called by the Tar Sands Blockade. In a similar effort today, religious leaders held a protest in front of the White House to call on President Obama to reject the Keystone Pipeline. Earlier this week, three environmentalists chained themselves to the doors of a TD Bank branch in downtown DC.